All Blog Posts (7,321)

I find evolutionary psychology to be a fascinating, and practical way of looking at how and why people think and act the way they do. It explains why some people act in the seemingly not so logical ways they do sometimes. It explains how we've developed emotions, and how they aren't something beyond the physical world. A notion many find hard to part with. Anyways I'm mostly making this post because I felt like sharing this great… Continue

I heard about this on the radio, so I had to find it...
This is important, I had to repost it...

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22210

China's Charter 08
Translated from the Chinese by Perry Link

The document below, signed by more than two thousand Chinese citizens, was conceived and written in conscious admiration of the founding of Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, where, in January 1977, more than two hundred Czech and Slovak intellectuals formed… Continue

OK, for you non-churchies, I will school you on some of the basics of what it's like going to a Catholic church. Hopefully the institution will go the way of the DoDo, facial hair on men, and disco and what I'm writing here will be THE definitive/wikipedia description of what church is like. Cause of course what I'm writing here is all true (yeah right).

For the Roman Catholic, church is 1 hour (should be, no more no less). You forgive if they go over a LITTLE because hey, you're a… Continue

To add to the growing body of evidence that stem cell research can be a boon to medicine and to our aging population, an article published today in Technology Review reports that "By injecting stem cells directly into the brain, scientists have successfully reversed neural birth defects in mice whose mothers were given heroin during pregnancy. Even though most of the transplanted cells did not survive, they induced the…Continue

So, putting my toe into the whole atheism thing, I really have to give props to www.friendlyatheist.com I haven't read any of those fancy books like The God Delusion or End of Faith cuz I'z cain'ts readz and my adult on-set ADHD precludes me from any successful attempts at finishing a book. I was already a non-believer before putting a name to it, so, I saved myself $25.95 plus tax.

Hemant (aka friendlyatheist) once talked about altruism and how churches have a monopoly on… Continue

Although I was raised without religion, I was also not raised to be against it. My parents let me find my own way based on my interactions with the world and the people I met in it. This said, my dad is very much an atheist. He and I love to watch Richard Dawkins videos together, read science books, and watch documentaries like Friends of God and Jesus Camp and just shake our always questioning heads.

As I read all the people who join this forum, for me what really stands out are people who signed themselves as "never a part of a religion"

I find this painfully unfair and yes I am so unbelievably jealous. I didn't know such people existed. What kind of animals are you?

How do you go about being born into a family that doesn't shove mystical shit down your throat when you are 3 years old and helpless? Screw you up with logic like, if you don't go to church you're sinning… Continue

Given the increasingly deadly responses between Israel and the Palestinians, I’d like to get more perspectives from atheists about what the causes are, and how to, if possible, undo some of the damage done in their relationship.

Is the core of their issue religion? Land? Resources? Politics?

I won’t even pretend to be a scholar on the regional history but I know enough to say that there have been numerous injustices brought about by both sides; and their violence… Continue

So before I get to the real meat of this post, I need to give a bit of an intro and background. It's long, so bear with me.

Since becoming an atheist, I have realized that atheists can sort of be grouped into one of three catagories:

1. You were born into an atheist/non-religious family and have never held any religious beliefs.
2. You were raised in a "religion as tradition" type of family. Maybe you went to services, got first communion, etc, simply because it was a… Continue

My overall reaction after my first chat on this page was great, I don't think we got anywhere with a topic or understanding the different beliefs in the room, but it was thoroughly interesting and definitely a challenge.
I think where we left off was the matter of free will being in control, as it can only be controlled by you.
What I was trying to get at with this was how as humans, having faith is a channel which you choose to react through.
Faith being that my point of view…Continue

I never quite fit in. I think most of us felt that way at some point in our life. Because I had been raised Christian, I was convinced it was because I was “not of this world”. For one thing, that sounded very romantic. My discontent had a source and it was Heaven… where, obviously, I belonged.

I thought this must be doubly true because I didn’t fit in with my family. They were everything I wasn’t. I had always been just a little bit more serious-minded while they were outgoing and… Continue

Here is a collection of hilarious bible misprints over the years. Boy would I like to have one of these, ha ha ha ha!!!
(courtesy of wikipedia)

In various printings of the King James Version of the Bible, some of the more famous examples have been given their own names. Among them are:The Blasphemous Comma Several editions: Part of Luke 23 reads "And there were also two other malefactors. [crucified with Jesus]" It should have read "And there were also two… Continue